Steinberger Spirit GU Standard

Bought it from Musicyo.com for $259. 24 fret, Strat-style body,honeyburst finish,EMG H/S/S select pickups,5 position switch, Trans-trem tremolo unit, came with free gig bag. With the exception of it's wonderful finish, I hate this guitar. This Trans-trem system is just the worst. I've read other reviews in which it states "this thing never goes out of tune". There's this locking feature on trem which is impossible to lock on the fly. The lock never seems to catch unless you turn guitar upside down to see where it should catch. And then there's this large knob for bringing strings back to pitch when lock is disengaged which is worthless. And it NEVER EVER stays in proper pitch. I hate this guitar. A pure waste of $259.

I play blues/rock, some funk and country. Pickups are fairly silent hum/buzz wise but 4th selector position does not deliver that brass/cluck the way a standard Strat would. Humbucker has some fairly decent bite for heavier rock material.

Action was set fairly well upon delivery. Honeyburst finish turns out to be it's best feature.These pickups just don't deliver though. I was hoping the pickups would enable one to go from "hard rock" tones from the humbucker to country-ish tones from the single coils.The single coils fail miserably on this point. No definition from the 4th selector setting. Humbucker does have some decent output but again has no real distinct tone.

Seeing as how I threw it across the room during a rehearsal because of this idiotic tremolo unit, it held up fairly well. Hardware seem durable. Had to change strap buttons from righty to lefty as I play it upside down so they seem fairly durable as well. I'll never be able to depend on it live. MUST HAVE A BACKUP!!! If you break a string the tension shifts and it goes WAY out of tune. With exception of finish and decent fretboard, I hate this guitar. It's garbage.

Havn't dealt just yet but may give them an earful for peddling such a useless item.

Been playing for 20 years or so and own about 21 other instruments {mandolin,basses 12 strings, etc.} Here's what I love about it..finish and neck. Here's what I hate about it..that ridiculous tremolo unit and it's fairly indistinct tone. If it were stolen, I'd track the culprit down and thank him for it. I'd never get another. The trem is completely unreliable live but one should have a backup anyway. I'm giving it a 2 because of the finish only. Spend wisely..not on this thing

2000-made in japan or overseas in some shed
24 frets
1 vol 1 tone 5way sel. h-s-s config (select emgs)-passive
maple neck /maple body finish black
steinberger r trem double ball end strings
came with gig bag which is kind of like a cheap school bag but what do you want for nothing

it works ....rock progressive/metal/jazz
dont know if i like the select emgs might change them to dimarzio
stock select emgs are quiet but are not that powerful

needed minor ajustment then again i have been playing for 12 years used to be in a band but im not like some guys on here that have to have there stuff within certain specs and they still suck!

guitar was flawless! great finish !

this guitar will last a good while ass long as you can get the strings for it ........they make a add on adaptor so you can use regular strings ( i have to pick one up dont know how it will work)

never had to call musicyo but the guitar came fast and was packedged good

i have been palying 12 years ...i also play an ibanez 570 and use a 80 watt marshall combo with a dod floor unit
if it was stolen iwould get another one im thinking of buyin a second one already in a different color

This guitar is an "M" style Korean Steinberger body made of swamp ash. Has a bolt on maple neck with 24 frets on a rosewood fingerboard. Has a single coil EMG Select PU in the neck and the mid and an EMG Select Humbucker for the bridge. Also sports the "R Trem" which, from my understanding is exactly like the American made "S Trem", but it's no transtrem. Comes with 9's on from factory (which broke my first night having it). Includes a nylon gig bag (not the greatest, but it's at no extra cost), trem bar, Hex Keys for truss rod and bridge work, a setup leaflet, and a guitar cord.

The only place to buy these new is from musicyo.com. From their website, they said that there were only two color options, cherryburst and honeyburst. I ordered the cherryburst, but much to my surprise received a sunburst! At first I was mad, but the sunburst finish is probably the best looking of them all. Another good thing about the finish is the fact that near the black, it get's hard to see the giant word "Spirit" printed on the body. The finishing is a first class job for a mass produced foreign guitar. The neck was also put together well. Over all, the guitar arrived blemish free except for a TINY scrape on the back of the neck at the base, but really, for $229, you can't go wrong.

In my opinions, for the money, this is the single best sub $500 new guitar you can buy! The single coils have a wonderful clean tone, and are very useful for clean, but have a problem pushing a good tube amp (a JCM900 50 anyway). The humbucker has wonderful tone as well, and is a bit more capable of pushing your amp to get decent distorted tones. I hate to say this, but it would probably be better played through fake distortion like the POD rather than a good amp, but that's personal preferrence. For passive pickups, these were by and far more quiter than my old (first guitar) mexican strat. I think these pickups are made with real magnets, rather than having bar magnets glued on the back.

Now, to be honest, I intended from the start to strip out the pickups and install real EMGs, and that's what I did. I installed two EMG SA's (single coils, ala Dave Gilmour) and an EMG 89 (dual mode pickup, functions as an 85 and an SA). Now that I have these pickups in this guitar, I almost don't mind the fact that it doesn't have a graphite neck (yet). The removal of the old pickups was easy. Some pointers though. When you remove the Selects, you won't be able to use any of the electronics (pots and switch), but I RECOMMEND SAVING THE CABLE JACK! The one supplied with EMG's is for pick guard mounting. Come to find out, the jack is actually pretty good quality. A local guitar store wanted to charge me $20 for a new one EXACTLY like the one in the Spirit. Also, when installing ACTIVE EMG's, don't forget to take the trem off and remove the ground wire that runs into the electronic's cavity. The knobs can be pulled straight off the pots to be used on the new pots. I changed out the pickup selector switch becuase it is a nonstandard design, and doen't feel all the sturdy. I replaced it with a Fender 5 way. My volume is now a push/pull pot to toggle the 89, and the tone is a tone.

Now, when I first got the guitar, it had buzzing problems like you would not beleive. These come with absolutely NO idea of being setup (oddly enough, the intonation was correct on mine!). After about a good 20 minute workover, I had it playing decent. I would say that there are spots in the neck where the frets need to be worked. I have two such spots, 6th string first fret, and 4th strong 17th fret. The lowest I was able to set the action and not get buzzing was 4/64ths of an inch. A guitar tech friend of mine tells me that the neck seems to be made wrong and that it could use a shim in the neck joint to help out the angle of the neck to eliminate buzzing. I plan on replacing the neck with a graphite neck from moses graphite in another month, so, for now, I'll live, but I am going to make a shim to see if it will help things. One bad thing is that when I put a graphite neck on, I will need a new head piece for the guitar, which can only be gotten from ed roman...

Like I said, the setup was crapolla. The finish is great, and the routings are clean. This is truly a good piece of work.

This guitar will most definetly withstand live playing. The hardware would survive anything. The finish seems as though it may need some more time to set, because it is kinda soft in spots on my guitar. This guitar is so cheap that I've decided to make it my "player's guitar". I've got strats and les pauls, and they cost so much more than this. This guitar is replacable if it got destroyed!

It seems that customer support is through musicyo.com and I've emailed them about stuff, and they've been short, sweet and to the point. They've also gotten back to me same day!

This guitar should goto 11, but, since it can't... For the money, you should own one. It will make you happy, I promise. It even feels good to wear, it's very ballanced.

If you decided you want to install real EMG's in it, and would like some help or opinions, please feel free to contact me. I now know just about everything there is to know about wiring the dang thing up.

If this guitar were stolen, I would personally find the mofo and cut him crotch to chin and hang him by his toe nails for all to see. It took me an entire day to get those Pickups installed, but I now know just about everything there is to know about how to do it. Like I said, feel free to contact me if you need help!

I'd also like to say that EMG's tech support is great also. Thanks Gary!

I Assume this is a 98/99 model. Purchased in 2000 from www.musicyo.com. Hard maple bolt-on neck, rosewood fretboard with 24 frets. The neck has no head, hence no machine heads... Guitar is tuned at the bridge. Maple body with solid black finish. 3 "Select" pickups, (designed by EMG apparently), two humbuckers at neck and bridge, single coil in the middle position. One volume control, one tone. A five position switch much like a standard strat switch. Body shape is kinda like a strat. The bridge is a Steinberger R-Trem, a locking tremelo system. Comes with allen wrenches, a one page instruction sheet and a gig bag.

I like this guitar a lot. I have been playing guitar off and on for ~30 years. The guitar has mostly been played through a Crate 60-FX amp. I also sometimes use a Dunlop Wah and a Zoom 505. I play a range of music types, rock music from the 60's through to Metallica, some blues, some pop, and anything else I run across. This guitar is emphatically a Rock guitar. I like the sound from the pickups. To my ear, it sounds better played through the overdriven channel of my amp. It sounds ok clean, but add a little gain, a bit of reverb and a touch of chorus and it sounds great... The sound is clean, no noise. Very full sounding on the neck pickup, nice and bright (just right) on the bridge pickup. I haven't reached any conclusion on the middle pickup yet, I sometimes play with the bridge/middle or neck/middle selected but rarely with just the middle. The middle pickup seems to have a low output and a not very distinctive sound. My baseline guitars for comparing the sounds are a Squier Strat and an Antoria (Japanese) Les Paul Custom copy purchased in the late 70's. The Squier has all single coil pickups, the Antoria has twin P90 copys (presumably also Japanese). The sound from the humbuckers on the Steinberger has a lot more body than either of the other guitars I own, but I can't say how they would compare to other humbucker equipped guitars.

The finish is excellent, I can't detect any blemishes. I had to tweak the truss rod and set the intonation. The pickups seem to be set at the correct height. All of the hardware looks solid and functions properly. The locking lever for the tremelo was a little tough to move, it soon loosened up.

I only play for my own benefit, so I can't comment on it's gigging potential. It looks to be generally rock solid. The only component that looks flimsy is the strap at the head of the guitar that holds the strings in place. It is basically an elastic band. I worry when changing strings about damaging it... no problems thus far. The finish is durable. One strap button is slightly loose, needs tightening, no biggy. I think this guitar could very well be used for hand-to-hand combat (and still stay in tune).

I haven't had cause to contact MusicYo. They do a 30 day money back if you aren't happy. Apart from that, I understand that there is basically no warrenty and no support from Gibson (who own the Steinberger label) for these guitars.

I would buy another if it were stolen. I love the sound thru the overdrive channel of my amp, it has a nice big metal sound. Same answer for favorite feature, the sound of the guitar... I chose the guitar basically because I loved the "new" ideas incorporated in it. As it happens, these features all behave as advertised and the bonus is that wonderful sound. I also like the feel of the neck and the capability to set a real low action. Did I mention it never goes out of tune ?